The end game in BDO can be pretty harsh. It either means investing a lot of time and money to get geared up quick or taking your time to get what you need in pieces slowly. Sometimes painfully slow, but patience helps.

When you’re trying to balance real life and a game as time intensive as BDO the grind can get to be a bit much. Especially at the end game level.

At this point I’m still working on getting my gear leveled up one bit at a time. It’s a much slower process for me than for folks with more time and in game resources but I’m managing. At the same time I’m also working on getting at least a solid tier 7 horse, I’ve even got a couple of chances at some tier 8’s. Just cross everything for me if you will because my luck with horse breeding is so-so at best.

Chance

I get a pretty wide range of horses, but not always the best. That’s horse breeding in a nutshell though. You never know what you’re going to get.

It’s still an interesting side project for me though. I always love seeing what RNG will toss at me next.

As for RP, well we tried going out to one of the RP hubs last night and it was a thing. We’ll probably stick to one day a week of public RP then keep to guild story lines.

Honestly I don’t mind that too much. I prefer RP with my guild mates at this point. They’re a great crew and I’m lucky to have them.

I may not be lucky in BDO, but I am lucky with my guild so that’s something.

Speaking of the guild I’m hoping to focus on leveling it up a bit. We’re slowly getting this and that maxed and we’ve got a decent amount stored up in the bank. Thing is though if we’re going to want to build a boat eventually when the sea content launches we’re going to need a lot more.

The guild is motivated enough on that front and we get guild missions in when we can, when we feel like it, when we have energy (and sometimes when we don’t) and when we remember. For me the remembering is the hardest part.

I’ve been struggling in game to come up with just what I want to do. Finding ways to make some coin while not actively spending a lot of time in the game is tough. I’m working on some different capital avenues that I’m hoping will pay off.

The game is pretty geared toward grinding as a primary form of income and that does work great and means that people who are putting in the effort get the best results. That makes sense. Though there’s something to be said for the folks that pretty much just want to be support and still want gear strong enough to survive when you can’t stop yourself from hitting the pvp cap.

Granted in BDO the pvp side of the game is over hyped. If you stick it out and get enough gear and levels, especially when you can get an awakened class, you can stand up for yourself pretty well. Really it’s just a matter of dedication and outlasting the other folks.

That’s pretty much what I plan on doing. I may not be the best in the game, but I look at it this way. If I can make some coin, breed a good horse and enjoy RP, I’m getting my money’s worth. That’s all that matters for me.

At the moment things are coming together in BDO. Well aside from the fact that I really need to put some more levels on the Witch, but I’ll get to it.

She’s sitting at 51 and I’m working on getting her geared up. At the moment she has pretty much what she needs, I just need to buff it up. Everything needs levels from her armor to her horse.

It’ll happen slowly but surely.

So far the Witch has been a pretty handy addition to the guild as well. It makes scroll nights go pretty fast even with less than a full group. Disco balls also go REALLY fast. But that’s probably due more to the 55’s we have hitting them more than my DPS. On the bonus side though the heals alone are saving us all a ton on pots.

GrimFire is also fitting into RP in the guild since a combat medic is something the guild could really use. RP wise they have fighters and staff, but there’s not really a healer so that’s a good fit.

I’m also setting up an infirmary to add a little bonus RP to the server. I’ll be in the same place my guild hangs out but at least it’s something to do. The nice thing about having a medic around is that people get a chance to RP out a wounded character getting treatment.

All kinds of chaos can happen in and around an infirmary.

Once I get that going I plan on working on a journal for GrimFire. So far she’s becoming an interesting character.

Well it’s time to get back to fishing so I can make enough to get my armor repaired. So I can blow it out again and build up failstacks.

My first two horses bred were level 19 grey tier ones. I based that off of the horse breeding calculator found here. Including my first tame Spooky.

FatherFoal (Son) AurthurThe Mom Spookie

It’s not much but it is a start.

If you are interested in breeding at all take a look at the breeding calculator and Brank’s videos on horse taming. He’s a positive guy and has some good ideas. The videos are great if you need to get started. Dulfy also has a great resource on getting into taming and breeding if you need something with less video.

As of the date this post was written these links are accurate. I can’t guarantee that they will still be active at later dates, but for the moment they’re good.

Say hello to Aurthur. He is the product of my first attempt at breeding horses. I can tell you that it was very successful. Aurthur is a tier 3 male with a pretty decent set of stats. I bred him from two tier 1 parents which was quite nice. I was hoping for a female as I already have a few tamed tier 3 boys, but I’m not totally disappointing.

If you play Black Desert Online, just be aware that your motto while playing should be “I’ll take what it gives me.” You can push the odds into your favor in some respects using resources such as Horse Breeding calculators and other research that will help you get a leg up on the game. In the end though random number generators influence the rest.

Even down to taming, you never know if you’re going to be successful on that attempt. On the bonus side though it does keep things interesting and it makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Mostly because it is a grind.

BDO is a grindy game. You can reduce the grind by using cash shop items, but personally I’m willing to see how far I can get before I blow a wad of cash on the game.

I have a strategy too that will hopefully help me out in the long run. I don’t plan on creating an entire breeding pool tier for each tier so that hopefully I can get some better results.

Right now I think I have at least 3 tier 3 males. I could start training and breeding those guys immediatly and that would push me up into the higher levels without a doubt. Thing is though that I want to make sure that I have a nice selection of breeding stock so that if the RNG goes completely wonkey I’ll have a back up.

This means that I need a lot of room for horses and I currently have ranches in 3 towns as that’s about as far as I’ve gotten in the game so far. Honestly that doesn’t bother me one bit since I plan on taking my time, exploring what the game has to offer oh and building a small empire of my own.

I’ll go more into why I’m having fun in BDO when most folk are ditching it in droves another time. At the moment I have another tier 1 female to level up to finish off the breeding points on the tier one male I leveled up yesterday. I only leveled the tier 1’s to 19 as that is about all you need to get a significant level boost from breeding tier 1’s. It’s pretty efficient.

I can say that the next set of levels are going to be another matter entirely. I think I need to get to at least 20 with my tier 2 mares and tier 3 studs to get up into tier 4. Then I’m wondering if I should sell some of my first tier 4’s to recoup the cost of my horse related addiction. I’ll have to look into that when I get there.